June 27, 2008

What Autism Speaks is doing in PA is just another example of how they use their considerable resources to bring about the PERCEPTION that our kids are being helped, rather than giving them the ACTUAL help they need.

Families who have worked on the insurance bill in PA for years are now being undercut by Autism Speaks, because they want to use the PA legislation, not in the best interests of the children of PA, but to build a national movement to get autism covered in all the states.

Don't get me wrong... I want that national movement to happen, but we DO NOT compromise the treatment and care of the children of Pennsylvania to do it.

It is just another example of crappy 'greater good' logic that takes from one child to give to another. Each child needs what they need, an it is our job as a society to give it to them.

Autism Speaks... stop using children THAT ARE NOT YOURS to advance your agenda that will not be best for those specific children!

Friends:

There can be no question in the minds of Pennsylvanians with autism and their families that Speaker Dennis O'Brien has unfailingly been our community's champion in the Pennsylvania General Assembly for decades.

Dennis has seized every opportunity to advance the best interests of our community, sometimes at political peril to himself, but always with the unwavering goal of pushing forward the rights of the community that he loves so much.

Dennis O'Brien sponsored the autism insurance bill now before the General Assembly, the bill that aimed to require health insurers to step up and cover diagnosis and treatment for persons with autism. At every turn, Dennis has worked with families, with advocates, withpolicy makers, and with those aligned with the insurance industry to craft and push forward a bill that would truly benefit the Pennsylvania autism community.

Autism Speaks, through its Government Affairs Department (who are not Pennsylvanians and who had no previous experience with Pennsylvania families, the service terrain, or with its legislative process) came to Pennsylvania with the promise that they would help Speaker O'Brien in his efforts to enact a sound autism insurance bill that would, above all, help our community.

In the last several days, it has become apparent that, through the efforts of the health-insurance lobby and its allies in the General Assembly, what had been an important and helpful bill, that won the overwhelming approval of a panel of national experts, has been mutated into something that lacks the most important safeguards forPennsylvania families and that could, if enacted in its present form, actually harm the very community Dennis O'Brien intended to help.

Dennis has made clear that, no matter how fervently he believes in legislation to force health insurers to do what they should have done years ago, he will not support his own bill if the changes forced upon it by the insurance industry and its allies actually undermine the purposes of the bill and pose too great a risk of harming thecommunity. If that is his decision our community as a whole must accept that he has done so carefully, after excruciating deliberation, and with sound counsel, and only because he believes the current version of the bill would likely hurt the people he has spent his entire career helping. Dennis has earned our faith in him.

I have learned recently that Autism Speaks' Government Affairs team are now suggesting that they want to push the bill forward regardless of what Speaker O'Brien believes and regardless of the perils it poses to our Pennsylvania families. Recently, a leader of Autism Speaks indicated his desire to cause the "sense of a wave" in the states toward a larger National agenda. I responded to him that, inPennsylvania, we need to have more than a "sense" of a wave - an "illusion" of a wave - but a REAL wave that meaningfully benefits Pennsylvania's families. Many of us with considerable experience navigating the Pennsylvania service systems believe that the bill as reported out of Senator White's Committee is an "illusion" of a mandate. In other words, an insurance bill is being prepared for passage that lacks any concrete assurance that it will actually help Pennsylvanians with autism and their families. We are the people who will live with what happens in the General Assembly in the next few days. We must be the voice the Pennsylvania legislature hears and we must be the people who stand behind Speaker O'Brien during the next several days.

In deciding which of the competing positions to support, our community must consider our history. Dennis has been our standard bearer for decades. He has been in the trenches with us on every important issue we have faced. We know this man. We know his integrity and we know his heart. He is one of our own. On the other hand, the Autism Speaks' Government Affairs team are tourists in our community, and unfamiliar with the lay of Pennsylvania's service terrain. They have their own agenda, and it apparently focuses more on their national goals than on what actually happens on the ground here in Pennsylvania. If Autism Speaks tells you to ignore Dennis's position or to support the stripped-down version of HB 1150, ask yourself two simple questions: (1) Where were they in the hard times during which Dennis fought for us against MA caps and premiums and for an adult autism waiver, and (2) where will they be months or years from now if this fatally flawed bill they are endorsing starts eliminating services our children so desperately need?

In the next few hours or days, our Speaker will tell us what he believes must be done with respect to this bill – this bill that he sponsored and championed and which many of us invested many, many hours in advocating. Listen to him. Follow his lead. Do not be distracted by those who share neither our history nor our future. Our Speaker Speaks for me and I ask you all to let our Speaker speak for us as well.

Private insurance companies will continue denying coverage of autism treatments under a bill passed 49-1 by the state Senate on Sunday, opponents said prior to the vote.The opponents originally stood as proponents of a mandate forcing private coverage, but the final version of the bill was so amended, they said, the proposed mandate would actually hurt families dealing with autism.

The original version — authored by state House Speaker Dennis O'Brien, who slammed the final Senate revisions prior to its passage Sunday — would have forced insurancecompanies to cover autism treatments up to $36,000, with the state's Medical Assistance program helping families with any costs above the cap.

A report commissioned by the Pennsylvania Health Care Cost Containment Council saidlast week that the original mandate would end up costing all insurance customers about $1 per month.

The Senate Banking & Insurance Committee, however, amended the bill last week.

According to O'Brien and others who once supported the bill, the revisions passed Sunday by the Senate allow insurance companies to decide for themselves what services to cover.

While the bill sets up a system to challenge any denial, disappointed former supporters said the bill now makes affording vital but expensive treatments prohibitive.

"When insurers deny coverage, families will have no alternative but to reach into their own pockets to pay for the medical treatment," Estelle Richman, a one-time supporter and secretary of the Department of Public Welfare, wrote in a letter Sunday to Republican Sen. Don White, a former insurance broker and chairman of the Banking & Insurance Committee. "This means they will be worse off ... ."

O'Brien, who has placed much of his legacy as a legislator into getting this mandatepassed, called the bill an "illusion" of insurance coverage for autistic children.

"That's because the current version gives the insurance companies a back-door way to continue denying coverage for autism services," he wrote in a statement. "Insurance companies will continue to second-guess these kids' doctors and refuse to pay for autism services. The Senate-amended version gives them the power to unilaterally deny that coverage ... ."

Also rejecting the new bill were AutismLink and the Autism Center of Pittsburgh, but the national organization Autism Speaks announced its support of the current version as did Sen. Jane Orie, co-chair of the Autism Caucus.

"The bill now moving forward, if signed into law, would be the strongest autism insurance mandate yet achieved in the nation," said Elizabeth Emken, vice president of government relations for Autism Speaks.

Supporters also trumpet other amendments to the bill, including government oversight of a pending merger of two large Pennsylvania insurance companies — Highmark andIndependence Blue Cross — and insurance coverage of colorectal cancer screenings.

In Switzerland, the EU and the US Department of Energy have just finished construction on the world’s largest supercollider.

Now generally I believe in the principle that ‘science is fun’, but there is one small potential downside on pressing the start button on this mother. There is a teeny, weenie speck of a chance that… theoretically… it could open up a black hole on the suburbs of Geneva.

When I heard this my mind went back to a sermon I heard from a very bright pastor in Manhattan named Tim Keller who made the point that there are many things that you can be wrong about, that won’t cause that big of a problem. But that there are a few things that are so important, the consequences of which are so dire, that you can’t just THINK they aren't true, you have to KNOW that they aren't true.

Examples of such dangerous assumptions might be that God does not exist, that vaccines don’t cause life long neurological impairments in children, and that your science experiment will not open up a black hole on the surface of the earth and suck in the planet, the sun and the rest of the solar system just like in Poltergeist when the whole house got sucked into the closet.

What do black holes have to do directly with autism? Nothing that I know of. Although I would not be surprised to hear that Autism Speaks is considering funding a study to see if there is a relationship between black holes and autism under their ABV* program. (*Anything But Vaccines)

I raise the topic for two reasons.

One, to point out what arrogant SOBs we really are.

Two, as a public service announcement on the off chance that on some sunny day this summer you find yourself suddenly flying through the air in the general direction of Europe, so that you will know what is happening and be able to take a moment to decide that you are completely right on your position on the God question, and to forgive those who were wrong about the vaccine and the black hole questions.

June 23, 2008

CBS is catching on to the fact that the government does not ask the questions that one would naturally ask if they actually wanted to know if and how vaccines cause autism.

And she correctly points out that the question of "Do vaccines cause autism" is now off the table with the Hannah Poling case. The question now in play is "How to vaccines cause autism".

Vaccine Watchby Sharyl AttkissonJune 19, 2008, 10:34 AM(AP)

After a decade of denying any possible association between vaccines and autism, the government quietly settled a vaccine-autism case last fall. When news of the case leaked out to the public months later, government officials labelled the case of Hannah Poling an "anomoly." The truth is, nobody is in a position to know whether Hannah's case is an exception. Government officials have told CBS News that they have not tracked vaccine-autism claims to see how many of them might involve children with the same undetected mitochondrial disorder Hannah had... one that may have made her susceptible to side effects from vaccines, triggering her autism. Government officials have also acknowledged to CBS News that they haven't looked for common denominators in other autism-related cases which have been compensated in federal vaccine court. Yes, there are other cases that have been paid. As CBS News has reported, the government has been settling vaccine injuries that resulted in autism and/or autistic symptoms since at least the early 1990's, while at the same time telling the public there is no cause for concern. Not all of the cases are published, but some of them are and can be found by searching legal case databases. That... with the help of some well-placed sources... is how CBS News turned up at least nine more cases... and counting. Considering that only a tiny fraction of vaccine-autism claims find their way to the little-known vaccine court, these cases are just a sampling of the total that may actually exist in the population. Further, according to knowledgeable sources, vaccine injuries compensated in the past due to encephalopathy (or brain damage) "often" resulted in autism, but the autism label was not used. Again, the government does not track how many of the encephalopathy cases involved children who got autism or ADD after their vaccinations.

One important factor is often lost in the discussion of a handful of cases: the fact that the debate has shifted from whether vaccines have any relationship to some cases of autism... to what is the role of vaccines in some cases of autism. And how big is the pool of cases. If vaccines can trigger autism in any way, directly or indirectly, that contradicts all the rhetoric and dogma heard from many public and government health officials for the past decade. And it supports what many other researchers have been saying for a decade, often to deaf ears, even after they published in peer-reviewed scientific journals.

Which is probably why Hannah's case is resonating under the radar in the medical community. A government conference has now been scheduled for later this month to examine mitochondrial disorders like hers and autism or neurological "triggers" (i.e. vaccines). See below.

"Mitochondrial Disorders of Childhood: Testing, Potential Relationships to Autism Spectrum Disorders, and Triggers for Neurological Deterioration" is a workshop to be held on Sunday June 29th after the close of the United Mitochondrial Disease Meeting in Indianapolis at the Hyatt Regency Indianapolis. The workshop will convene 11 experts in mitochondrial disorders or autism to discuss how the neurology of mitochondrial disorders might inform autism research.

The conference is sponsored by a number of Federal agencies including DHHS, CDC, FDA, NINDS and NIMH. Observers are welcome as seating allows.

June 21, 2008

In 2003, Dr. Eric Coleman (LETTERS TO THE EDITOR: Ethylmercury in VaccinesPediatrics, Apr 2003; 111: 922 - 923.) was able to have a letter printed in Pediatrics, undoubtedly because of his affiliation with the FDA, defending the decision to pull the Hep B vaccine until a Thimerosal or ethylmercury free version became available. He said the AAP and USPHS should be commended for this proactive decision for "the fact is, no preclinical or clinical studies were ever conducted to specifically examine the safety of thimerosal (ethylmercury) at the doses found when used in multiple infant and childhood vaccines. Thus, there was no conclusive evidence because there were no studies."

The Coleman letter is of historical importance because of what what took place next.What followed was insanity. The CDC forced flawed and perhaps fabricated ecologicalstudies down the throats of pediatricians and the AAP. Pediatrics published theVerstarten and Madsen studies, to name two, despite glaring methodological errors.

The CDC then used this planted intelligence, if you will, to not only defend the continued presence of Thimerosal, but to obfuscate the rising numbers of children with neurobehavioral disorders, including Autism, and controlled the IOM in the process to make it all but impossible for any one in academic medicine to point out the obvious and still be taken seriously.

Valuable time was lost for affected children and families were destroyed in the ensuing years when legitimate interventions and research could have been taking place.

Thimerosal continues to this day to be given to 3rd world children with the blessing of the WHO and without protest from those that know better within the USA. Meanwhilethe CDC line was all the "new" cases of affected children were but do to better diagnosis.

delivered to the House Appropriations Committee, in which she admits to a startling string of errors in the design and methods used in the CDC's landmark 2003 study that found no link between mercury in vaccines and autism, ADHD, speech delay or tics.

A 2006 report from the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS),concluded that the CDC's infamous Verstarten Thimerosal safety study publish in this journal was riddled with "several areas of weaknesses" that combined to "reduce the usefulness" of the study.

"CDC concurs," Dr. Gerberding wrote in an undated confession (see above link) to Congress, (provided to journalist David Kirby through a Capital Hill staffer) adding that her agency "does not plan to use" the database in question, the Vaccine Safety Datalink, (VSD) for any future "ecological studies" of autism.

In fact, Gerberding's report said, any continued use of the VSD for similar ecological studies of vaccines and autism "would be uninformative and potentially misleading."

After Verstarten revealed the link between Thimerosal and neurobehvioral disorders in the report presented to the secret Simpsonwood meeting in June of 2000 (http://www.putchildrenfirst.org/media/2.9.pdf) CDC officials conducted at least five separate analyses of the data. The first analysis revealed at Simpsonwood showed that children exposed to the most Thimerosal by one month of age had extremely high relative risks for a number of outcomes, compared with children who got little or no mercury: The relative risk for ADHD was 8.29 times higher; for autism, it was 7.62 times higher; ADD, 6.38 times higher; tics, 5.65 times; and speech and languagedelays were 2.09 more likely among kids who got the most mercury.

Verstarten, who did NOT disclose to this journal that he was now an employee of vaccine maker GlaxoSmithKline (not the CDC) diluted his data five times The relative risk for autism plummeted from 7.62 in the first analysis, to 2.48 in the second version, to 1.69 in the third round, to 1.52 in the fourth, and down to nothing at all in the fifth, final, and this was what was published in November of 2003 (Pediatrics 2003; 112:1039-1048).

The new and improved Verstarten VSD study was the main pillar of a hugely influential 2004 report by the Institute of Medicine, which was essentially ordered to conclude that there was no evidence of link between mercury, vaccines and autism.

The AAP published VSD study has long been held up as the best and brightest of all epidemiology studies(the others were in Sweden, the UK, and two in Denmark).

There is now not a single pediatrician in the USA who can not quote from at least the AAP (Verstarten) study.

In 2005, a group of Senators and Representatives headed by Sen. Joe Lieberman wrote to the NIEHS (an agency of the National Institutes of Health) saying that many parents no longer trusted the CDC to conduct independent minded studies of its own vaccine program. Lieberman et al asked NIEHS to review the CDC's work on the vaccine database and report back with critiques and suggestions.

The final NIEHS report detailed where the CDC went wrong in its design, conduct and analysis of the study. The NIEHS panel "identified several serious problems," with the CDC's effort, criticism to which the agency had not responded until Dr. Gerberding delived her undated report referenced above.

The NIEHS had criticized CDC for failing to account for other mercury exposures, including maternal sources from flu shots and immune globulin, as well as mercury in food and the environment.

"CDC acknowledges this concern and recognizes this limitation," the Gerberding replysays.

The NIEHS also took CDC to task for eliminating 25% of the study population for a variety of reasons, even though this represented, "a susceptible population whose removal from the analysis might unintentionally reduce the ability to detect an effect of thimerosal." This strict entry criteria likely led to an under-ascertainment" of autism ases, the NIEHS reported.

"CDC concurs," Gerberding wrote, again noting that its study design was "not appropriate for studying this vaccine safety topic. The data are intended for administrative purposes and may not be predictive of the outcomes studied."

Another serious problem was that the HMOs changed the way they tracked and recorded autism diagnoses over time, including during the period when vaccine mercury levels were in decline. Such changes could "affect the observed rate of autism and could confound or distort trends in autism rates," the NIEHS warned.

"CDC concurs," Dr. Gerberding wrote again, "that conducting an ecologic analysis using VSD administrative data to address potential associations between thimerosal exposure and risk of ASD is not useful."

So, the Director of the CDC is now saying that its most powerful and convincing piece of exonerating evidence for Thimerosal is, in effect, "useless." This after years of propagandizing the American public in violation of the law, after holding the illegal secret Simpsonwood meeting when all of this was revealed - including to a representative of the AAP!

Now we have a generation of pediatricians, who face perhaps the greatest iatrogenic accident in the history of pediatrics, who actually need to be deprogrammed to understand what the true nature of all the neuro-behvioral problems are that they confront without any understanding of etiology or potential interventions.

The most serious message that affected children have sacrificed themselves for still goes unheeded. The message is that the level of industrial pollution we are exposing ourselves to is so great now, that just a little more toxic load will push us over the edge.

It pushed a generation of children over the edge and so while we ponder who is going to pay for the many who will go on full disability, we should ponder the fate of our species as well.

For those of you who may not understand the significance of this development, Julie Gerberding, the head of the CDC, has just taken down the tent pole arguement in the "vaccines don't cause autism" claim, on her own, with her bare hands.

Further, they kindly tell you that if you decide to only get one or two shots at a time, your child might die, but they are not trying to scare you into sticking to the full CDC schedule.

'Oh... and vaccinate or you are out of our practice and we won't recommend any other docs to you... but seriously... don't feel pressured.'

I have criticized the AAP in the past for making today's vaccine decisions based on the health threats that my father faced when he and his brother contracted polio, and lost their father to the disease, in the epidemic of the 1940's, rather than basing them on the modern heath threats my child, who contracted autism, faces a full sixty years later, in the current epidemic of developmental and immune disorders of the early 21st century.

But now they have topped themselves. In the letter that they are holding out to pediatricians as a model of what to tell their patients (from All Star Pediatrics), they are citing the small pox threat (which was eradicated 30 years ago) that Ben Franklin's son faced, and died from, in 1736!

They reiterate that they believe that neither vaccines nor thimerosal causes autism, or other any other developmental disabilities, and that "ALL children and young adults should receive ALL of the recommended vaccines according to the schedule published by the Centers for Disease Control." [emphasis mine]

Like pediatricians, and many of you reading this, I make my living by providing a service to people. I wonder how many of my clients and potential clients would still want to do business with me if I handed them a letter that in any way even remotely suggested that they were selfish, self-centered, complacent, lazy, emotional people with unacceptable attitudes if they didn't take my recommendations on which services of mine they should purchase? Any one of you wanna give it a try for a week in your business and see what happens?

By digging in and taking this increasingly absurd stance they are not just potentially damaging the vaccine program, they are putting at risk parents trust in their their statements about EVERYTHING. When you stand in front of your doc and hear him make the statement that vaccines have nothing to do with autism, then watch Hannah Poling get a million or so check from the Vaccine Injury Compensation Fund for her "autistic symptoms", then listen to the head of the CDC explain how vaccines cause autism in the presence of mitochondrial disorders on CNN, then go back and ask him about the whole thing and hear him reiterate that vaccines don't cause autism, but this time handing you a piece of paper that insults you, are you going to take his word about about anything else?

What do they plan on doing if the VCIP Omnibus Hearings find for the petitioners with Autism?

Do they understand that they are moving from shooting themselves in the foot to shooting themselves in an artery?

Two weeks ago Jim Carrey asked, "How stupid do you think we are?"

The AAP has answered, "You are so stupid that we can not only keep telling you obviously disprovable lies, but we can also insult you, and you will not only CONTINUE to entrust your children to us, you will pay us money to do it!"

Last April the AAP took the wise step of attending the DAN! conference. They said that they were impressed and thought we were on to something.

I wrote a piece on the AAP's chance to mend the widening rift between parents and pediatricians, and to regain the lost trust that was growing by leaps and bounds due to the obvious overstatements on vaccine safety that they were making to patients and their families.

I warned that they had a small window of opportunity to work to change course, work in good faith, and begin to make statements about the true risks of vaccination that abandons the now untenable assertion that vaccines don't cause autism or contribute to neurodevelopmental disorders. I warned that the window would only be open for a short time unless we saw real action, and would probably close around the time of the Green our Vaccines Rally if they didn't show up for us in some respect.

Well the AAP didn't show up for the rally and well... this certainly signals that the window is closed. They want it closed. And it looks like they may be locking it.

UPDATE:

An addendum to address critique that this post has received elsewhere.

-One person seems to have been concerned that I was personally insulted by the AAP and All Star Pediatrics. I want to assure that I am at peace on the matter. After having my son become sick due to AAP's bad policy, not much that they simply say about me, or people like me, hurts my feelings.

Insults given do not necessarily need to be received.

In my life, personally, I believe it is wise to work toward not being "insulted" by insults. Because really, either the person insulting you is right, and you need to do some self examination and change, or they are wrong, and (to be frank) who cares what they think about you.

In this case, I think that Dr. Dyer and his crew are wrong. Deciding not to vaccinate based on your best judgment is not selfish, self-centered, or a product of 'unacceptable attitudes'. (Come to think of it, how exactly does Dyer and company read minds to know what peoples motives are? Especially people he has never met, as the statement is a blanket one?) We are charged with making the best choices for our kids that we can given the information we have. Reducing that decision making process to the motives Dyer wants to believe are behind those decisions is just speculative bullying and communicates low regard for parents.

Especially parents who are earnestly struggling with the issue.

And it is not me being insulted that is the problem. It is the parents on the vaccine bubble. Treat their legitimate concerns with contempt and you only risk making complete vaccine refusal more widespread.

-Umbrage seems to have been taken at my use of the word "recommends" in the opening sentence, "The American Academy of Pediatrics now recommends that pediatricians tell parents who don't vaccinate their children that they..."

I am making the assumption, a reasonable one I think, that choosing only one medical practices vaccine policy letter to patients (one would think there are a thousand out there to choose from) and placing it prominently both on your newsletter and website whose purpose is to give guidance to pediatricians who are members of the AAP constitutes a 'recommendation'. If not a recommendation, it certainly represents a ringing endorsement.

For the sake of accuracy, I will contact the AAP on Monday and ask that they clarify if this was a 'recommendation' or an 'endorsement'.

But, if we can cut the crap and get real for a moment, it does not matter what semantics the AAP decides to play with this. They are holding it out for their members as an example to be followed and even if they DID run a disclaimer (which they didn't) that they don't recommended the letter at all, the message would still be loud and clear to peds.

'Feel free to insult your patients, use coercion to get them to fully vaccinate and dismiss them if they don't. We might 'have' to officially say don't do it, but really, you won't get any arguments from us! (wink)'

Kinda like the conversation I had with my seven year old yesterday, "Son, it is totally wrong to steal cars. Did I ever tell you about Jonsie "Zoom Zoom" Mcgillicutty? Man that guy was great at stealing cars. Here is what he did... now here is how you jimmy the lock to break in... and here is how you hot wire it... and once you have the car you..."

They can say all day they want their docs to 'work with' parents, but what they DO gives us the real message of what they are all about. And what they have DONE is tell peds how to treat patients with earnest vaccine concerns with contempt.

Addendum:

Links to the AAP Newsletter have disappeared, so I am copying the letter here in case the rest do as well:

"All Star Pediatrics’ Vaccine Policy
Statement

Editor’s note: The following document is available for download on

the AAPMemberCenter
at www.aap.org/securemoc/immunizations/

allstarpediatrics.doc, and may be adapted for use by practices.

We firmly believe in the effectiveness of
vaccines to prevent serious

illness and to save lives.

We firmly believe in the safety of our
vaccines.

We firmly believe that all children and young
adults should receive

all of the recommended vaccines according to
the schedule published

by the Centers for Disease Control and the AmericanAcademy

of Pediatrics.

We firmly believe, based on all available
literature, evidence and

current studies, that vaccines do not cause
autism or other developmental

disabilities. We firmly believe that
thimerosal, a preservative

that has been in vaccines for decades and
remains in some vaccines,

does not cause autism or other developmental
disabilities.

We firmly believe that vaccinating children
and young adults may

be the single most important health-promoting
intervention we perform

as health care providers, and that you can
perform as parents/

caregivers. The recommended vaccines and their
schedule given

are the results of years and years of
scientific study and data-gathering

on millions of children by thousands of our
brightest scientists

and physicians.

These things being said, we recognize that
there has always been

and will likely always be controversy
surrounding vaccination. Indeed,

Benjamin Franklin, persuaded by his brother,
was opposed to smallpox

vaccine until scientific data convinced him
otherwise. Tragically,

he had delayed inoculating his favorite son
Franky, who contracted

smallpox and died at the age of 4, leaving Ben
with a lifetime

of guilt and remorse. Quoting Mr. Franklin’s
autobiography:

In 1736, I lost one of my sons, a fine boy of four years old, by
the

smallpox…I long regretted bitterly, and still regret that I had
not given

it to him by inoculation. This I mention for the sake of parents
who omit

that operation, on the supposition that they should never
forgive themselves

if a child died under it, my example showing that the regret may

be the same either way, and that, therefore, the safer should be
chosen.

The vaccine campaign is truly a victim of its
own success. It is

precisely because vaccines are so effective at
preventing illness that

we are even discussing whether or not they
should be given. Because

of vaccines, many of you have never seen a
child with polio, tetanus,

whooping cough, bacterial meningitis or even
chickenpox, or known

a friend or family member whose child died of
one of these diseases.

Such success can make us complacent or even
lazy about vaccinating.

But such an attitude, if it becomes
widespread, can only lead to

tragic results.

Over the past several years, many people in Europe have chosen

not to vaccinate their children with the MMR
vaccine af ter publication

of an unfounded suspicion (later re tracted)
that the vaccine

caused autism. As a result of
underimmunization, there have been

small outbreaks of measles and several deaths
from complications of

measles in Europe
over the past several years.

Furthermore, by not vaccinating your child you
are taking selfish

advantage of thousands of others who do
vaccinate their children,

which decreases the likelihood that your child
will contract

one of these diseases. We feel such an
attitude to be self-centered and

unacceptable.

We are making you aware of these facts not to
scare you or coerce

you, but to emphasize the importance of vaccinating
your child.

We recognize that the choice may be a very
emotional one for some

parents. We will do everything we can to
convince you that vaccinating

according to the schedule is the right thing
to do. However,

should you have doubts, please discuss these
with your health care

provider in advance of your visit. In some cases, we may alter the

schedule to accommodate parental concerns or
reservations. Please

be advised, however, that delaying or “breaking
up the vaccines”

to give one or two at a time over two or more
visits goes against

expert recommendations, and can put your
child at risk for serious

illness (or even death) and goes against our
medical advice as

providers at All Star Pediatrics. Such additional visits will require

additional co-pays on your part. Furthermore,
please realize that

you will be required to sign a “Refusal to
Vaccinate” acknowledgement

in the event of lengthy delays.

Finally, if you should absolutely refuse to
vaccinate your child

despite all our efforts, we will ask you to
find another health care

provider who shares your views. We do not keep
a list of such

providers, nor would we recommend any such
physician. Please recognize

June 19, 2008

Recently I was preparing a list of bios in order to introduce a group of researchers to one another, most of whom were autism parents. I listed their credentials and then wrote "Autism Mom" or "Autism Dad" following.

Then it occurred to me that those titles really should be part of their credentials. You certainly learn more in a year of autism parenting than you learn in a year of schooling.

So I am proposing that we start listing our hard earned credentials. Add A.M. or A.D. to the end of your alphabet soup.

June 14, 2008

Two More Girls Die After Receiving Gardasil Cervical Cancer Vaccinationby David Gutierrez

(NaturalNews) The European Medicines Agency (EMEA) has reported thattwo young women died shortly after receiving Merck's Gardasil, avaccine against several varieties of human papillomavirus (HPV).

Gardasil and Glaxo SmithKline's Cervarix protect against the twostrains of HPV that are responsible for 70 percent of cervical cancercases. Gardasil also protects against two HPV strains that cause 90percent of genital warts.

The EMEA did not release the names or ages of the women who died, andsaid the cause of death was still unknown. It described their deathsas "sudden and unexpected."

"In both cases, the cause of death could not be identified. No causalrelationship has been established between the deaths of the youngwomen and the administration of Gardasil," the agency said.

The recent deaths mark the fourth and fifth to occur shortly followingvaccination with Gardasil and the first in Europe. Previously, threeyoung women, aged 12, 19 and 22, died in the United States within daysafter receiving a Gardasil shot. In addition, 1,700 cases have beenreported of patients suffering non-lethal adverse reactions.

Health officials believe that adverse effects of medication are widelyunderreported.

Starting in September, the United Kingdom's Department of Health islaunching a yearlong campaign to vaccinate British girls between theages of 11 and 13 with one of the HPV vaccines. The program isexpected to prevent 1,000 cervical cancer deaths per year, thedepartment says.

In response to the EMEA's announcement, the Department of Health saidit had no plans to reconsider the program or change its advice onvaccination against HPV.

An estimated 1.5 million people in Europe have already received an HPVvaccine.

In the United States, three states have passed laws mandating HPVvaccines for school-age girls, and 38 others have considered similar laws.

Mandatory vaccination has been opposed by the American College ofPediatrics and the New England Journal of Medicine.

June 11, 2008

Jenny is a 14 year old with a rapidly progressing paralysis. We are looking for other people like her in an effort to find treatment....

URGENT APPEAL FOR MEDICAL GUIDANCE ON PERPLEXING NEUROLOGICAL CASE OF JENNYUnusually Rapid decline from apparent lower motor neuron disease in a 14 year ild girl (Inset followed HPV vaccine in March 2007). Jenny is now Quadriplegic-- and in danger of further decline.

For access to detailed medical records, please request access code from JenTet.com Administrator ý[admin@jentet.com]ý and correspondence on diagnostic and treatment ideas to tetlock@haas.berkeley.edu

Many world-class MDs have been consulted and many treatments tried

Immunoglobulin, prednisone (oral and pulse), plasma pheresis, and Cytoxan, have been tried based on the assumption of an autoimmune process, with no apparent effect.

A mitochondrial cocktail has been tried based on the assumption of a mitochondrial disorder.

Lithium and Rilutek have been tried based on the assumption of a neurodegenerative disease.

Jenny may have had certain pre-existing autoimmune and/or genetic vulnerabilities that rendered her susceptible to a catastrophic reaction to the HPV vaccine. These include an autoimmune skin disease (pityriasis lichenoides), a maternal grandmother who died of progressive supranuclear policy, and a maternal cousin with severe autism/seizures. Jenny also has only a single copy of the SMN-2 gene (but otherwise does not satisfy the preconditions for SMA).

June 9, 2008

If you are with in driving distance, please attend. This CANNOT be allowed to pass.

From NAA:

Parents Rally in Albany Against Forced VaccinationForwarded from our friends at NVIC www.nvic.org

Parents will rally in Albany, NY on Tuesday, June 10, to protest a vaccine bill (AB10942) that would mandate the 69 doses of 16 vaccines the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) recommends for all children through age 18 plus would automatically mandate all new vaccines federal officials recommend in the future. Sponsored by the NY House Rules Committee at the request of NY State Health Commissioner Richard Daines, provisions in the legislation would force all children to get annual influenza shots as well as force child use of vaccines for sexually transmitted diseases, such as hepatitis B and HPV, without obtaining permission from parents.

The legislation would make unelected physicians, who are appointed to the federal Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) by unelected CDC officials, de facto state lawmakers because CDC recommendations for new vaccine use by all children would be automatically turned into state mandates. Duly elected New York state legislators would no longer be accountable to the people who elected them and could look the other way when federal officials recommend every new vaccine produced by industry for "universal use" by every child born in America.

If New York and other states had already passed this kind of legislation before the poorly tested and highly reactive GARDASIL vaccine was recommended by the CDC in 2006 for universal use by all 11 year old girls, Merck would not have had to spend money mounting a national advertising and lobbying campaign in a failed attempt in 2007 to ram GARDASIL vaccine mandates through state legislatures. (Public health laws, including vaccine laws, are enacted by the states and not by the federal government).

Every new vaccine that industry has created and marketed for children in the last quarter century has been recommended by the CDC for universal use by all children, tripling the numbers of doses of vaccines pediatricians give children. During this same time period, the numbers of children suffering with chronic disease and disability has also tripled with no explanation coming from U.S. public health officials about why so many highly vaccinated children are so sick.

In what appears to be a classic act of collective political cowardice, NY Assembly Bill 10942 would force nearly six dozen doses of vaccines on children and many more in the future but there are no publicly named individual sponsors attached to the bill. The only sponsor listed is the "Rules Committee" headed by Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver (D-Manhattan) . There is a lot of speculation about how much influence Merck and other vaccine manufacturers, as well as medical organizations and government officials pushing the forced vaccination political agenda, are bringing to bear on legislators behind the scenes.

Parents in New York claim that Assembly Speaker Silver is blocking passage ofAB 5468 for philosophical belief exemption to vaccination in the Assembly (there is a companion bill, SB 3031, in the state Senate). Current NY law only allows parents to file a medical or religious exemption to vaccination and both of these exemptions have become increasingly difficult to obtain in New York. Many parents are reporting that their religious exemptions are being denied or revoked after they have been grilled for hours by state attorneys and school officials about their spiritual beliefs. Some doctors practicing in New York are also reporting that they cannot write medical exemptions without being harassed by state health officials.

Parents protesting attempts by the pharmaceutical industry and government to force nearly six dozen vaccines on children or deny them an education, which limits their ability to hold a job and function in society, are also supporting Assembly Bill 3064 (also SB 1563) for religious exemption to vaccination that would prevent state officials from grilling parents about their religious beliefs for the purpose of denying a religious exemption to vaccination. This bill states that "this legislation is intended to protect parents from inappropriate and intrusive inquiry into their beliefs by government authorities" and already has numerous sponsors.

Parents are also supporting Assembly Bill 3180 (also SB 1575) for medical exemptions to vaccination to allow licensed physicians and certified nurse practitioners to write medical exemptions for children if they believe that "such immunization or immunizations may be detrimental to the person's health or is otherwise medically contraindicated for health reasons" without being subject to override by state health officials seeking to deny medical exemptions. This bill also already has numerous sponsors.

New York citizens, who want to attend the 11:30 a.m. June 10 rally and press conference on the steps of the Capitol Building (Swan St. side) in Albany, can get more information about bus transportation from Long Island, Rochester and suburban Albany as well as other details about the event at www.mykidsmychoice.com. After the rally, parents plan to meet with legislators and then attend a Health Committee meeting at 1 p.m. in the Legislative Office Building (Room 823).

For more information on contacting New York state legislators, go tohttp://assembly.state.ny.us/. New York voters can type in their zip code and find contact information for their own Assemblyperson and Senator and voice their opinion. To find out more about contacting NY legislators on this issue, go to the website of A-Champ.

Rita Palma, a Bayport mother of three, said "Vaccines are under more scrutiny than ever. Yet some lawmakers pick right now to create a bill that actually increases vaccine mandates. This bill is a slap in the face to worried parents throughout New York. AB 10942 is being pushed by Big Pharma lobbyists. We need to show them that New Yorkers will not stand for this and make our voices heard."

Congratulations to the parents and those principled lawmakers in New York, who are standing up and being counted in support of legislation protecting the human right to informed consent to vaccination. Every American should have the right to hold sincere religious and conscientious belief convictions about whether or not to subject themselves or their children to harm from a pharmaceutical product, such as a vaccine, that carries an uncertain risk of injury or death.

Doctors are not infallible and the products drug companies create for profit are not always safe or effective for everyone. And no child in America should be subjected to vaccination or any other medical procedure without the informed consent of his or her parents. New York AB 10942 backed by Big Pharma and Big Government is a prescription for tyranny.